I know that many of us spend a good bit of time patterning our turkey guns. That subjects us to the forces of recoil and all of its subtle and not so subtle effects.

I recently spent several weeks in physical therapy due to the effects of torque on my back from shooting so many full-power turkey shotshells.

Many of you are familiar with Patrick Flanigan, exhibition shooter for Winchester. What very few people know is that he recently experienced what could have been a career ending injury. For the first time, he discussed that injury with me and shared some advice that could be helpful to all shooters in helping us prevent similar problems.

Good call Clark, and that visit with Patrick was quite informative, I appreciate your bringing that to us and I appreciate Patricks time in what he relayed to us about our pyhsical fitness. As a golfer and archer-boyer, I know the importance of being limber and fully stretched before asking cold muscle to do something it's not ready for. I have a rotator cuff that acts up if I don't stretch it before a physical exercise, such as climbing into a treestand or shooting a bow, or swinging a club, yet I really had'nt considered the ramifications of not being muscle ready when it came to shooting sports, and I really appreciate the reminder cause at 50 I don't recover very quick anymore. Thanks again.

Thank you for the comments. I agree wholeheartedly with the importance of warming up and stretching. Most of us just have never thought about that. When my problems surfaced that was the first thing my doctor, also a shooter, asked me. I had to admit that I did not have any regular warm up routine prior to shooting. After several weeks of PT, I now have one!

Thanks,
Clark

"If he's out of range, it just means that he has another day and so do you."

Thank you for the positive comments. Patrick is just a great guy and I wish him a full recovery. It took some real courage on his part to "go public" with that information and I appreciated his decision to allow http://www.allaboutshooting.com to be the first to disclose that information.

I'll be interested to hear how your gun performs after your "deep cleaning". It's really changed the performance of many barrel/choke/shotshell combinations over the years.

Thanks again,
Clark

"If he's out of range, it just means that he has another day and so do you."